Box of hair

Although the real expression is "dumb as a box of dirt," Julie and I have altered it a bit to "dumb as a box of hair." No explanation, we just felt like making it our own.

Julie often says to me "I'll trade my staff for your staff--want to?" I always decline the invitation.

Yesterday her staff drove the bookmobile to a new stop in Lyon Mountain. There is no village or town of Lyon Mountain. There used to be a mine there where they mined iron ore. It closed eons ago. Now there's a state route that goes through the middle of town. A row of company houses. A slag pile at least 200' high. A Mobil station. A rectangular, 2-story building that's a minimum security prison (a must for every non-existent North Country town). An abandoned train station down the road. A closed bar in a mine shaft called "The Mine Shaft." And, apparently a senior center. We went to a whole lot of trouble to print and mail 900 copies of the new bookmobile schedule. The schedule listed the time and duration of each stop, as well as where the bookmobile would be parked.

When the bookmobile people got to Lyon Mountain and parked in the assigned senior center, they didn't see much activity--only 2 cars parked there and no patrons. They couldn't think of any patrons they were expecting, so they left and decided to drive around Lyon Mountain, looking for maybe a better place to park. Can't put the bus at the side of the road, now, can you.

They finally left.

For the past 18 years we've had a patron who lives in Lyon Mountain. Her name is Helena and she's been the bane of Julie's and my existence. She's been saying for 18 years that we should have a stop in Lyon Mountain. She went to the senior center and looked for the bookmobile. She said she looked around town and couldn't find it. She called here three times because she said she was worried about Bob and Debbie--where could they be? This made Julie and me laugh out loud: first of all, how could you lose a bookmobile in Lyon Mountain? Second of all: how could you not see a bookmobile in Lyon Mountain? This is what it looks like: